The present invention relates to a camera for picking up an electronic image, which is almost equivalent to a subject image exposed to a silver-salt film, in synchronization with the exposure to the silver-salt film.
Various types of camera have been proposed in which an image pickup unit is incorporated into a conventional camera using a silver-salt film to pick up an electronic image which is almost equivalent to a subject image exposed to the silver-salt film. Such a camera generally includes a monitor unit using a liquid crystal display device capable of confirming a picked-up electronic image. This type of camera is referred to as a camera with a monitor.
In a camera using a small-sized battery as a main power supply, the battery is likely to become exhausted shortly because both an image pickup unit and a monitor unit of the camera consume high power. A photographer therefore feels it unpleasant that these additional confirmation functions stop a picture-taking operation from being performed. It is thus difficult for a user to use this type of camera.
Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide a user-friendly camera having both a silver-salt picture-taking function and an electronic-image pickup function.
In order to attain the above object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a camera for picking up an electronic image, which is almost equivalent to a subject image exposed to a silver-salt film, in synchronization with the exposure to the silver-salt film, wherein prior to the exposure, a power supply battery is checked and, based on a result of the battery check, the electronic-image pickup operation is inhibited in the subsequent picture-taking operations.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a camera for picking up an electronic image, which is almost equivalent to a subject image exposed to a silver-salt film, in synchronization with the exposure to the silver-salt film, and displaying the electronic image on a monitor unit, wherein prior to the exposure, a power supply battery is checked and, based on a result of the battery check, at least one of the electronic-image pickup operation and the electronic-image display operation is permitted or inhibited in the subsequent picture-taking operation.
After at least one of the electronic-image pickup and display operations is inhibited, this inhibit state is continued until the camera is reset.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.